Sunday, July 25, 2010

My favorite summer dessert...berry cobbler!


So after more than a month of being lazy and uninspired, I am finally back to share a great cobbler recipe that's super easy and as simple as dessert can be... I called my mom today to get the recipe and of course she didn't have it written down. It was in her head so she didn't feel like emailing it to me... Only the best recipes are ones that are forever in your memory. Sorry there is no picture :( my camera is dead and my little sister drained my batter (surprise, surprise) so you are all forced to trust me when I say that this cobbler is a perfect balance of crispy topping and juicy, overflowing fruit underneath.

SUMMER BERRY COBBLER

Ingredients
6-8 cups of berries (your choice!),
1/2- 1 cup of sugar (depends on tartness of berries)
1/2 cube of butter, diced
2 boxes of Betty Crocker pie crust mix (there will be a little left over)

-Preheat oven to 450* for pre baking the crust
-Turn on large saucepan to medium heat
- After mixing the pie crust according to box directions, roll onto a floured surface and place strips or random clumps on the bottom of a greased 9*13 pan. Then bake for 8-10 mins at 450 and let cool completely before placing fruit on top.
     Turn oven down to 350*
- For the fruit, dump into the saucepan and add the sugar plus a couple tablespoons of water* and bring to a boil. Taste it to make sure it's sweet enough!
-Pour the fruit on top of the crust and scatter the pieces of butter over it. Also sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of that, then place strips of the dough in a lattice pattern (or whatever you feel like doing) on the top. Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar to add the finishing touch!
- Then bake in 350* for 30-35 mins. Just keep checking to make sure the topping is a light golden brown.

* If you accidentally add too much water it may turn the fruit mixture too runny. To fix this, add some teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken it again.

ENJOY have fun creating your own combinations of fruit!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

It officially feels like summer

My aunt (the bread lady) and I @ Family bbq
We had a family bbq... I made cupcakes. I started with chocolate frosting because we had a bar of ghiradelli semi-sweet... then I decided on chocolate cupcakes. It was a spectacularly beautiful day in Seattle today, and I was in an especially good mood... chocolate seemed fitting.
Sunset @ Fisherman's Terminal Today

Frosting (made up on the spot)
4 T melted butter
1 bar Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/8 t salt
1/4 C milk
~3 C powdered sugar
(I didn't measure when i made this, so I'm estimating here... you may have to adjust)

Melt the first two in the microwave and then add everything else and stir until smooth... this frosting sets up perfectly, yet is light and smooth. props to me.

For the cupcakes I used the chocolate cupcakes Joy the baker used to make peanut-butter chocolate cupcakes on her blog a few days ago...

2.25 C flour
2C sugar
1 C cocoa
2 t b.s.
1/2 t salt
1 T vanilla
2/3 C oil
2 t white vinegar
2 C cold water

preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the wet. Mix the dry. Mix together. Poor into LINED CUPCAKE PAN (I did one batch un-lined and they didn't come out well... too soft.) Bake for 20 minutes. Let them cool, and frost!





I took the perfect cupcakes to the bbq
And left the mistakes at home.

Did I mention, I LOVE SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Heavenly Banana Cake

I have to send you over to another blog for this recipe. I made Whipped the food blog's Heavenly Banana Cake on Memorial Day for a little family BBQ. The cake was good! If you like banana bread or banana flavor in general you'll like it. But it is very sweet, particularly the frosting. So I would suggest baking the cake, and then either using her frosting recipe but go really easy on the sugar, or use your own frosting... cream cheese would probably be best.